Not as volatile as gold and silver and much healthier than bonds, stocks and shares, REE are a great investment for the discerning investor seeking something more stable yet highly valuable and in demand.
Rare Earths come under the umbrella of Strategic Critical Minerals.
Strategic Critical Minerals (SCM)
Strategic Critical Materials are those minerals that are highly sought after in industry, electronics and the auto field and without which many devices could not operate including planes, cars, TVs, mobile phone in fact practically anything manufactures has one strategic critical element or another.
Included in SCMs are the Rare Earth Elements (REE) also. There rarity of these is in the distribution of them on the planet and the cost of extraction but also the fact that China has a near monopoly on them and their criticalness to the electronics, military and other areas of industry make them an excellent target for private investors if they could only get their hands on them.
SCMs include such minerals as antimony, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium and tungsten as well as the rare Earth Elements.
Rare Earth Elements
Rare earths are really rare at all. Most of them (with the exception of the radioactive promethium) are quite plentiful in the earths crust but they are spread out so thinly that it is very difficult to mine them economically.
The main rare earths are:
Lanthanum Oxide
Cerium Oxide
Neodymium Oxide
Praseodymium Oxide
Samarium Oxide
Dysprosium Oxide
Europium Oxide
Terbium Oxide
These are used in various industrial and technological areas such as:
Cobalt Lithium-ion batteries, synthetic fuels
Gallium Thin layer photovoltaics, IC, WLED
Indium Displays, thin layer photovoltaics
Tantalum Powder capacitors, medical technology
Antimony ATO, micro capacitors
Germanium Fibre optic cable, IR optical technologies
Platinum (PGM) Fuel cells, catalysts
Palladium (PGM) Catalysts, seawater desalination
Niobium Micro capacitors, ferroalloys
Neodymium Permanent magnets, laser technology
The Rare Earth Elements (REE) A number of critical applications
In addition China is holding on to what she has got for her own use.
REEs have been on a rising trend for several years and with the continued expansion of the industrial and technological arenas looks set to continue being in great demand for many years to come.
Only recent has it become possible for the individual investor, as well as institutions even, to obtain a selection of ‘baskets’ of rare earth and strategic critical elements.
These can be purchased and are stored in a secure ultra secure vault, operated by Zurcher Freilager AG who have been in operation since 1923. Its majority stock holder is AXA & Winterhur; one of the most distinguished financial institutions in Europe.
The vault is located within the Entrepot, a tax and duty free zone where your metal assets can be stored without any time limit and the metals can be resold and converted into cash at any time, although a minimum 5 year commitment is highly recommended.
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